Marcie Mayer

Social Entrepreneur

Marcie Mayer came to Greece for a two-week break from her Art History studies at UCLA, Berkeley in May 1984 and never went back. She has been independently employed in Greece as an interior designer, event planner, art teacher, English teacher, graphic designer, baker and weaver until she opened her own restaurant.

On the island of Kea, Marcie launched the Hamada Acorn Initiative, a project that aims to restore acorn as an important product for the local economy. Her aim is to show that acorns are edible, tasty and gluten free and can be widely used in small cottage industries. She crowdsourced the initial funding for her Eating Acorns project on Kickstarter. The campaign made its funding goal only within few days and this year 40 families participated in the first large scale harvest of acorn caps since 1965.